User:Rich Farmbrough/DNB/M/a/Mary Cholmondeley

Mary, Lady Cholmondeley|1563|1626| Mary, Lady Cholmondeley (born 1563 died 1626), litigant, was baptised at Nether-Poever, Cheshire, 20 January 1562-3. She was the daughter of Christopher Holford of Holford, Cheshire, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Randle Manwaring of Over-Poever, and widow of Peter Shakerley of Houlme-juxta-Nether-Poever. Mary had a half-brother by her father's previous marriage (who married Miss Shakerley on the day of his father's marriage to Mrs. Shakerley), but he died without issue shortly after his marriage. Mary married Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (1513-l590), of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, and her father's death followed immediately in 1581. Thereupon she entered upon the lawsuits to succeed to his property by which her name is remembered. Her opponent was her uncle, George Holford of Newborough, her father's half-brother, who claimed all the family estates as next male in descent. Mary persisted in her right, and the bitter contest went on for forty years. Ultimately friends prevailed upon the litigants, about 1620, to take equal shares. Mary received Holford manorhouse, where she lived in her old age. She made important enlargements to this house, and she died there 15 August 1626, when sixty-three years old. She had five sons [see Cholmondeley, Robert] and three daughters; one of the latter married a Grosvenor of Eaton. James I called Mary 'the bold lady of Cheshire'.

DNB references
These references are found in the DNB article referred to above.